With evidently powerful religious roots, Phaze3 delivers a veritable tour de force through just 11 songs in her new album “A Warrior’s Call”

Do you know Phaze3? If you don’t, you should, because you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s okay, I don’t blame you, I wasn’t aware of this wonderfully talented artist, either, until I heard her latest musical offering, her recently released Gospel album, entitled “A Warrior’s Call”. With evidently powerful religious roots, Phaze3 installs herself into your speakers and into your home and delivers a veritable tour de force through just 11 songs. Rather than simply qualifying as a musical album, “A Warrior’s Call” is a spectacle of faith, light, and ultimately hope. It’s definitely what you want to be listening to if you’re feeling a bit low because if there is one artist who has the power to pull you out of that, it’s Phaze3. Coming at you as she does from a long career as a ministry worker, spiritual healer, and religious leader, Phaze3 delivers a beautiful, highly melodious album that speaks overtly of God, but also on a much deeper and more personal level, of your own personal faith. It is a masterful album in the sense that it delivers one solid track after another and offers healing and strength. The first tune I heard off of […]

NIgerian Born, South African based RnB swooner John Osa Releases Unbowed

Nigerian Born John Osa is a prolific lyricist, who has been writing and producing music since 1992. His style is hard to put in a box but straddles the lines between soft rock and rhythm and blues. His music displays strong international appeal and is not typical of any geographical style or cultural flavor. After much anticipation, John Osa has released his debut album – ‘Unbowed’ – which features the smooth and powerful first single ‘Love Is Good. “This is the second song I wrote for my wife; the love of my life. It is a song that reflects the joy of true love based on a call, a shared cause and a covenant.  It expresses the joy we have found in each other after past hurts.  There is only one way to truly love, and that is to take a deep breath and dive in. After all, perfect love casts out all fear”. – John Osa John wrote the first ever theme song for the Nigerian National Soccer team, the Super Eagles, to commemorate their participation in the world cup in 1994. He has also written other songs to mark poignant moments in the political landscape of his nation. […]

Music Mirror reflects on Rene Byrd’s Never Never Never featuring John Holt

Rene Byrd started her musical career as a singer songwriter by participating in numerous talent contests inter-college competition based in London, which nurtured stars including Daniel and Natasha Bedingfield. Then, aged 14, she joined a band as a backup vocalist. Rene is third generation West Indian and she comes from a religious and musical background. Her father was a music producer and her uncle is a Gospel singer known as Bishop John Francis who had a gospel TV show broadcasted on Channel 4 called People Get Ready. Francis’ choir sang once for Queen Elizabeth at the Royal Variety Show. Rene recalls: ‘it was a regular occurrence to see my uncle on TV and he inspired me to sing. His voice is amazing!’ Her most vivid memory as a young child was being side-stage at an open-air concert in London watching Sade, Sting and Tracey Chapman perform which blew her away. So inspired was Rene that she ran on stage, grabbed the mic and spoke to the crowd. Rene has performed at Elstree Film Studios, at a TG Foundation’s charity event featuring Lady Gaga’s designer Vera Thordardottir, at Paris Fashion Week and on Live at The Forge, Delancey Street in Camden, […]

Music Mirror enthused by pop duo Cold Sugar’s One More Thing

Cold Sugar are a pop-duo based near Cardiff in Penarth, South Wales who formed in the autumn of 2015. The duo is Mark Henwood on keyboards, guitars and vocals with Luisa Davey on vocals. Mark and Luisa recently met on stage in a local production of Hot Mikado, which is a gospel and blues version of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic. Mark wanted to form a band with a mixture of modern pop sensibilities, 80s pizazz and a gospel feel, which became possible when he met Luisa and Cold Sugar was born. During the chorus rehearsals for Hot Mikado, Mark was struck by the gospel and blues backing vocals sung in classical alto and soprano parts and realised that this was the sound he was missing for his music. The debut single from Cold Sugar is called One More Thing and the band describes it as “a bittersweet song. On first listen it sounds like a pop song with a slightly ‘emosh’ (emotional or serious) build up to an upbeat chorus. The song is in fact about dumping someone because you realise it’s all a disaster. The story of the song really takes place in the pre-choruses, e.g. ‘Look at […]